Posts Tagged ‘CIEE’

Another great new profile by Kate Cooney, a student from the Fall 2010 CIEE Khon Kaen semester program.

A ‘Natural’ Transition: One small-scale farmer’s smooth transition into organic, chemical-free agricultural production

Katie Cooney

“Actually it is not that difficult,” Mai assured. “The first year I questioned myself. I worried I would not have anything to eat at all. But the second year the crops were so beautiful.” Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to the students of the Fall 2010 CIEE Khon Kaen program for their support. Here are two Op-Eds that really focus in on important current issues in Thailand’s interdependent rural-urban society:

Rethink the Rural and Urban

Sam Ryals

Globally the number of farmers is on the decline and urban slum populations are on the rapid rise. Countless people flood to urban centers each year with the hope of prospering only to find that there is little but destitution waiting to welcome them. Farmers are finding themselves in a similar state of poverty as the urban poor as large corporations snatch up the small farms and replace them with chemical intensive mono cropping. Who is winning here? The big businesses, the politicians and the government have much to gain as the divide between the rich and the poor is exponentially increasing. As Monsanto cuts backroom deals with policy makers innocent farmers are falling into bankruptcy because of the unethical business practices of seed patenting. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a new AAN Member Profile from Madeleine Dick-Godfrey, a student in the Fall 2010 CIEE Khon Kaen program:

Leaders Building Community

Madeleine Dick-Godfrey

You are in the middle of baking a cake. You realize you are missing a key ingredient, sugar. Do you: a.) Borrow sugar from your neighbors? Or b.) Drive all the way to the supermarket just to pick some up? Read the rest of this entry »

My name is Abe (uh-bee) Levine. I am a religious studies major and a food and political science minor at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN. I spent this past semester looking at the human perspective, the on the ground effects, of development and globalization in Khon Kaen, and as Bennett wrote, living and learning with villagers. This summer I will be working to develop a focus group of consumers from the Green Market (Dthalad See Keow); it will be modeled after groups in the States that organize C.S.A.s (community supported agriculture) and work together to create other initiatives related to organic agriculture in their communities. Read the rest of this entry »

It is 3 AM on Thursday morning and Meh Brat Tom Ta Na Koon is waking up to tend to her animals and farm. “I rise at 3 AM, cook rice, water the garden, release the cows, if time allows I will expand the garden, retrieve rice husks from the mill, rest during the day when the sun is hottest, herd the cows in the evening, eat vegetables I harvested that day and go to sleep by 8 PM.” Her routine may seem too scheduled for some, but for 53-year-old Meh—a mother, wife and farmer—there is nothing else she could imagine doing.

Indeed, the rows of sugarcane that line Nampop’s farm are grown in a rare way–organically. According to Dr. Buapan, a professor at Khon Kaen University, only 0.05% of all produce grown in Thailand is done so without the assistance of chemical fertilizers. Read the rest of this entry »

In American society, we value a multitude of choices because choices mean freedom. When we’re faced with two choices, any normal Joe would choose the one that makes them happier. Yes, there is a certain anxiety we feel when we’re presented with too many decisions like where to eat, what career to take, what song to listen to and all the other choices we make on a daily basis. But choices are often indicators of development. For example, if you have more choices to a career, your economy is healthy. If you can choose to buy a tropical fruit in the still of Vermont’s winter, trade is active and the power of your dollar goes far. Being able to choose between 40 varieties of cereals gives us the power to design our diets. However, in a capitalist society, have we come to appreciate the quantity of choices more than the quality? I especially want to explore this question in terms of our everyday consumer related decisions.

The flame of the lighter illuminated his face as we settled onto the mats. Overlooking a pond surrounded by plants, smoke rising from the tip of his cigarette, P’Bamrung humbly began to tell the story of his life. “I am not an NGO. I am a farmer,” he told us. But to his community he is undeniably a leader, and an inspiration to other villages that strive to preserve local culture and guarantee basic human rights. Read the rest of this entry »